Should Toronto go it alone?

A rural MPP may introduce a private member’s bill asking for Toronto to be made a separate province.

Conservative MPP Bill Murdoch Is suggesting rural areas of Ontario may be better off if Toronto became its own province.

By:Vanessa LuStaff Reporter, Published on Tue Mar 16 2010

Should Toronto secede — becoming the country’s 11th province and keeping more of the billions it sends to Queen’s Park and Ottawa each year?

It’s not a new idea – former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman famously mused about it in 1999, though he later said he was half-joking – during a bitter fight with then-premier Mike Harris over downloaded services on municipalities.

And now a Tory backbencher, Bill Murdoch, MPP for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound, said it would be a good idea — not just for the country’s biggest city, but also for rural Ontario, so the province could focus on rural issues instead of being pushed and pulled by big-city issues.

Murdoch, speaking at a meeting of the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture on Saturday, said rural Ontario is fighting a losing battle against “a Toronto mentality,” and that if Toronto went its own way, it would give rural Ontario its own voice.

“I’ve been thinking about it for years,” Murdoch said in an interview Tuesday, “Every law we pass at Queen’s Park has a Toronto mentality.”

He cited the ban on pit bulls as a Toronto issue, one rural Ontarians are not concerned about. Similarly, the province is unwilling to tackle the growing coyote problem that threatens farmers because of animal rights activists in Toronto, he said.

Murdoch dismissed any suggestion that Ontario would be weaker without Toronto. “It would be a part of Canada. It’s not as if we’re making another country,” he said. “It would just be like going to Manitoba or Quebec.”

Murdoch is pondering whether or not to introduce the idea as a private member’s bill, but was pleased he’s getting plenty of attention, including some from one highly placed politician.

“Province of Toronto ... an idea whose time has come?” Mayor David Miller wrote Tuesday on Twitter. “MPP Murdoch makes an interesting point.”

Political observers say the change is unlikely to happen, given it would require the approval of Parliament and seven of the provinces, with at least 50 per cent of the population.

“We can joke about it being far off, but it represents a serious issue ... The chronic issues of a city feeling underfunded and neglect (felt by) the rural areas,” said Stephen Clarkson, a political science professor at University of Toronto.

Toronto sends $11 billion more a year to Queen’s Park and Ottawa in income and sales taxes than it gets back in programs and services — and a 1 per cent share of sales tax would generate $400 million a year, said Miller’s spokesperson, Stuart Green, citing a 2005 Conference Board of Canada report.

At 2.5 million, Toronto’s population is much larger than any of the Atlantic provinces, and with a city operating budget of $9.2 billion, it overshadows many provincial budgets.

Murdoch wants only the city of Toronto to form its own province. However, he conceded that, though parts of the 905 municipalities have rural components, it’s possible the urban sections could go with Toronto.

Several 905-area politicians reached by the Star dismissed the idea a Province of Toronto, many saying the city is too entwined with the surrounding communities’ economies to secede.

“Our economies are so linked that the division would be very problematic, that’s for sure,” said Ajax Mayor Steve Parish.

Many of the Star’s readers of the Your City My City blog have raised the idea of Toronto declaring independence so its officials do not need to go constantly to Queen’s Park to seek more money, whether for the TTC or affordable housing. One reader suggested that Toronto invite the neighbouring regions of Durham, York, Peel and Halton, and possibly Hamilton, to join.

“Until Toronto gains independence or is given the powers enjoyed by Prince Edward Island, nothing will change measurably for the citizens of Toronto,” wrote one.

“Absolutely, Toronto should be its own province,” said another. “It’s far too disparate from the rest of the province for any real cohesion. Judging by many of the comments here I’d say the rest of Ontario doesn’t want it, and I would suggest that Toronto would be better off without the rest of Ontario.”

Other readers want to return to pre-amalgamation days, yearning for the former cities, such as North York and East York. They argue smaller is better, especially when it comes to managing finances.

“Bill comes up with all kinds of interesting ideas from time to time, but my Ontario includes everybody,” Horwath told reporters.

“It includes Toronto, it includes rural communities, it includes northern communities, it includes everybody,” she said.

Lastman was not alone in musing about the need for Toronto to go it alone. Back in the 1970s, Paul Godfrey, when he was Metro chair, argued before the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Toronto that the region should have the range and flexibility of a province in its decision making. Urban thinker Jane Jacobs, who moved to Toronto from the United States, once said: “Cities, to thrive in the 21st century, must separate themselves politically from their surrounding areas.”

Since Lastman touched off a firestorm with his secession suggestion back in the 1990s, Toronto has gained new powers from Queen’s Park under the new City of Toronto Act, bringing in new taxes including the vehicle registration tax and land transfer tax.

It also reached an agreement with the province to begin gradually uploading some downloaded costs in coming year. It also has exercised some of its new enhanced powers including banning corporate and union donations in this year’s election campaign.

And for the first time in years, city hall did not receive any extra funding from Queen’s Park this year to balance its budget — it found $350 million in a surplus fund — including $100 million announced last week.

With files from Robert Benzie and Jesse McLean

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